EMS & WMS Reading Guide | Summer 2021: 8th Grade eBook Recommendations

Seventh grader Jordan Banks loves nothing more than drawing cartoons about his life. But instead of sending him to the art school of his dreams, his parents enroll him in a prestigious private school known for its academics, where Jordan is one of the few kids of color in his entire grade. As he makes the daily trip from his Washington Heights apartment to the upscale Riverdale Academy Day School, Jordan soon finds himself torn between two worlds. Can Jordan learn to navigate his new school culture while keeping his neighborhood friends and staying true to himself?

In an Oklahoman middle school, Khosrou (whom everyone calls Daniel) stands in front of a skeptical audience of classmates, telling the tales of his family's history, stretching back years, decades, and centuries. At the core is Daniel's story of how they became refugees—starting with his mother's vocal embrace of Christianity in a country that made such a thing a capital offense, and continuing through their midnight flight from the secret police, bribing their way onto a plane-to-anywhere.

This fascinating memoir blends drama, comedy, and tragedy to depict the day-to-day trials that turned a boy into a young man. In a country where racism barred blacks from social, educational, and economic opportunity, Trevor surmounted staggering obstacles and created a promising future for himself, thanks to his mom's unwavering love and indomitable will.It's Trevor Noah: Born a Crime not only provides a fascinating and honest perspective on South Africa's racial history, but it will also astound and inspire young readers looking to improve their own lives.

Plus-size high school senior Faith Herbert is a normal teen who hides a huge secret: she can fly like a superhero. When the set of her favorite television show "The Grove" comes to her small town, she's thrilled to meet and hang out with the show's star Dakota Ash. However, shortly thereafter, friends and pets suddenly start disappearing from town, and Faith is determined to use her abilities to find out what's happened to them.

Twelve-year-old Donte is the darker-skinned brother of Trey, which in his racist, mostly-white school has earned him the nickname Black Brother. When the captain of the school fencing team successfully frames him for something he didn't do, Donte is arrested and suspended from school. Joining a local youth center, Donte meets former Olympic fencer Arden Jones and begins training to defeat his school bully and find courage to confront the racist system that got him arrested.

Childhood friends Maya Rehman, a Pakistani American Muslim, and Jamie Goldberg, a white Jewish boy, both seventeen, are thrust together while canvassing door-to-door for a progressive Senate candidate. As the two realize they may have feelings for each other, they face not only challenges at home but also a political bill that calls for "a partial ban on head and facial coverings while participating in certain public activities."

In 1457 on the Korean island of Jeju, two sisters, Hwani and Maewol Jewoo, go missing in a forest and are later found unconscious next to a murdered girl. The event tears their family apart in the coming years, with Maewol apprenticing to a local island Shaman and Hwani and her father Min moving to the mainland. Five years later, Min, a well-respected detective, learns that thirteen more girls have disappeared in the forests on the island and leaves to investigate. When he too disappears, Hwani follows in his footsteps hoping to find him and understand what happened to the girls.

When Norris Kaplan, a Black French Canadian, moves to Austin, Texas, he's plunked into a new high school. He finds himself cataloging everyone he meets: the Cheerleaders, the Jocks, the Loners, and even the Manic Pixie Dream Girl. Making a ton of friends has never been a priority for him, and this way he can at least amuse himself until it’s time to go back to Canada, where he belongs. Yet against all odds, those labels soon become actual people to Norris. But the night of the prom, Norris screws everything up royally. As he tries to pick up the pieces, he realizes it might be time to stop hiding behind his snarky opinions and start living his life--along with the people who have found their way into his heart.

The invasion begins with rain. Rain that carries seeds. Seeds that sprout--overnight, everywhere. These new plants take over crop fields, twine up houses, and burrow below streets. They bloom--and release toxic pollens. They bloom--and form Venus flytrap-like pods that swallow animals and people. They bloom--everywhere, unstoppable. Or are they? Three kids on a remote island seem immune to the toxic plants. Anaya, Petra, Seth. Can they somehow be the key to beating back this invasion? They'd better figure it out fast, because it's starting to rain again.

Mary Lambert has felt safe and accepted on her beloved island of Martha's Vineyard, comforted by the fact that her great-great-grandfather was the first deaf islander and paved the way for many to learn sign language. However, when Mary's brother dies and her family shatters amidst land disputes with the English settlers and Wampanoag people, it paves the way for an opportunistic young scientist to come and study the island's prevalent deafness.

After Tristan fails to save his best friend when they were in an accident together, all he has left of Eddie is his journal. Tristan goes to spend the summer on his grandparents' farm in Alabama, but on his first night there, a sticky creature shows up in his bedroom and steals Eddie's notebook. In an attempt to wrestle the journal out of the creature's hands, Tristan punches a tree, accidentally ripping open a chasm into the MidPass, a volatile place with iron monsters that are hunting the inhabitants of this world.

Concrete Kids is an exploration of love and loss, melody and bloodshed. Musician, playwright, and educator Amyra León takes us on a poetic journey through her childhood in Harlem, as she navigates the intricacies of foster care, mourning, self-love, and resilience. In her signature free-verse style, she invites us all to dream with abandon--and to recognize the privilege it is to dream at all.